U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a meeting with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet (unseen) in Tallinn, Estonia, Thursday, April 22, 2010, prior to the start of a key meeting of NATO foreign ministers. (AP Photo/Timur Nisametdinov, NIPA)
/ AP

TALLINN, Estonia 
The civilian leader of the NATO alliance said Thursday that U.S. nuclear weapons based in Europe are essential to NATO's defense strategy, a likely signal of defeat for calls by some Europeans for an early withdrawal of the estimated 200 bombs.

The comments come as the Obama administration is pressing Moscow to negotiate reductions in U.S. and Russian short-range nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.

"I do believe that the presence of the American nuclear weapons in Europe is an essential part of a credible deterrent," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met over dinner with 27 other NATO country representatives to discuss nuclear weapons policy and the future of missile defense.

Fogh Rasmussen also credited President Barack Obama with putting "new wind in the sails" of the disarmament movement by calling for a nuclear-free world last April in Prague.

Clinton was expected to spell out at the dinner the Obama administration's view of how NATO should pursue the nuclear policy debate, which formally begins in this Baltic seaside capital and is due to climax in November when Obama and other NATO government leaders gather in Lisbon, Portugal, to endorse a rewriting of the alliance's basic defense doctrine.

At a news conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, Clinton said no one should doubt U.S. defense links to its allies.

"Let me be clear," she said. "Our commitment to Estonia and our other allies is a bedrock principle of the United States and we will never waver from it."

Clinton and her aides declined to preview her remarks on nuclear policy, but they pointed to the latest statement of U.S. views on the subject: a Nuclear Posture Review published earlier this month that said nuclear weapons remain a vital part of NATO strategy for deterring attack. That statement also said the presence of U.S. nuclear arms in Europe contributes to alliance cohesion and confidence.

The nuclear element of the U.S. defense commitment to Europe takes several forms: the potential use of U.S.-based long-range nuclear missiles; the capability to quickly move U.S.-based short-range nuclear weapons to Europe in a time of crisis, and the storage of an estimated 200 nuclear bombs, designed to be dropped by short-range attack jets, in five European countries. Some Europeans have called for the forward-based bombs to be removed.

Clinton also was likely to underline the U.S. view that improved and broadened missile defenses in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and in Asia, can play a bigger role in deterrence and thereby allow the U.S. to meet its defense commitments with fewer nuclear weapons.

The administration also has determined that it will not unilaterally remove the estimated 200 nuclear bombs it has stored in Europe.

Some officials in Germany and other U.S. allies in Europe are advocating a withdrawal of those bombs, citing Obama's call last year for a nuclear-free world and the U.S. administration's stated preference for reducing its reliance on nuclear weapons for defense.